Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Dear Diary,

The woods are dangerous.

It’s common knowledge- or it should be. The sky is blue, the well has a loose stone in its side, and the woods are dangerous. 

It’s not like it even looks nice, either! It’s terrifying. “Darkness shrouds it,” as father has warned us so many times. “The type that ensnares you, and never lets go."

There have been whispers, recently, too, of not-quite-human faces hidden in the trees, hands grasping for people that wandered a touch too far past the point of safety.

And, of course. Of course! My idiot brother had to drag us out here.

There isn’t even anything fun in the woods. Just trees, and trees, and guess what? More trees. Maybe a few bushes here and there for some spice.

He probably wanted some excitement- nothing happens around here anymore, so I guess he's onto something. Plus, I mean, it’s not like anything would really happen to us. Worst thing to happen is we miss curfew, and get yelled at by father.

There isn’t any good place to write this, my hand is cramping, and I’m being yelled at to hurry, so I figure I should finish this up.

Guess it’s time for an adventure.

______

“Tommy!”

Tommy jumps, craning his head around to yell back at his brother-slash-bestfriend-slash-coworker, Tubbo. “Yeah?”

“The cookies are burning! Get back over here!”

Ah. That made sense. He’d distracted by reading a journal he’d found while working, trying to make sense of it. Honestly, it was way too fancy-sounding. It didn’t help that it was in the most looping cursive he’d ever seen.

“Coming!” He shouts over his shoulder, closing the book. He’d have to finish it later- something about it told him it would be an interesting read, at least.

He stands up from his spot on the ground, shoving the book in the front of his apron as he walks over to the kitchen. Sanitary? No, but it worked.

He, in all honesty, probably should’ve remembered he’d put the cookies in the oven before getting distracted by a side quest. Yes, finding an old and dusty diary in a cupboard in your parent’s bakery was interesting, but it might have been best to leave it. For the time being, at least.

Well, no changing the past now, he figures, opening the oven door and pulling out the tray. Besides, while he was over here, he could probably show Tubbo the journal. He'd probably find it interesting- Tubbo was always fascinated by things like these.

"You better not have burnt the cookies." A voice speaks from behind him.

Tommy turns around, plastering a smug smile on his face. "Nope," He says, popping the 'p'. "I never burn anything, because I am Tommy Innit and I am the biggest of men."

Tubbo rolls his eyes. "Uh huh." He deadpans, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall. 

“It’s true!” Tommy protests, setting the cookies on the counter. "But anyways, I wanted to show you something.” 

“Oh?” Tubbo questioned.

“Yeah! Look at…" He grabs the book, presenting it with a flourish. "This!"

Tubbo tilts his head, moving closer to inspect it. “A book?”

“Not just any book, it’s a diary!” Tommy grins at him. “It’s kinda boring so far, but it’s like, fuckin’ old and shit. Figured you’d want to have a look at it.”

Tubbo’s whole demeanor changes with the word ‘old’, because of course it does. “Yeah,” He breathes, eyes wide with wonder as he looks at it. “This one’s practically ancient. Can I-” He hovers his hands near the book, and Tommy hands it to him. 

“Woah.” Tubbo looks starstruck at the prospect of having an old-old book. Tommy can’t help the fond smile that creeps onto his face.

He had watched Tubbo flip open the book, ever-so-gently, and start reading before he realized he would get bored within a minute of this.

“Okay, well, I’m gonna go do some more things for the bakery, Tubso, have… fun?” 

Tubbo looked up from the book to give him an “Okay!” and a smile before he went back to reading.

Well. That was that, Tommy supposes.

He’d just have to get back to doing bakery things on his own. He knew Niki wouldn’t be mad if they didn’t finish their work- he didn’t think he’d ever seen Niki mad- but he didn’t want her to decide he or Tubbo shouldn’t work in the bakery anymore. 

Logically, he knows that most likely wouldn’t happen, but he’d been cast out of work far too many times to not be careful.

Things had gotten infinitely better after Niki and Puffy had adopted him and Tubbo- he was sure if either of them didn’t want to work, they wouldn’t have to- but still.

Old habits die hard.

As he thinks, he begins the process of making a batch of raspberry-lemon cupcakes. They’re fairly easy to make, he’ll probably be done with them within the hour. 

He was right. Just about 45 minutes later, he was wrapping up frosting all the cupcakes. He made a mental note to stop by The Egg later, and grab some more cream cheese- he’d just used up the last of it. 

As he was making his way to the front, cupcakes in hand, with the aim to put some in the display case, he was stopped with a shout.

“Tommy! Come look at this!” 

That could only mean two things; Tubbo had either found something interesting in the book, or found something not right in the real world. Either way, Tommy sets his tray down on the nearest surface, and makes his way towards the ‘living room’ area that Tubbo had migrated to. 

“What’s up, big man?” He asks, plopping down on the sofa. Tubbo, next to him, just shoves the book in his face, opened to a specific page.

“Read.” 

So Tommy reads.

______

Dear Diary,

Another day of being lost in the woods. 

I warned him! I warned my buffoon of a brother that we’d be stuck in here for at least a week before someone came for us. But as the dawn of the seventh day arises, he still stubbornly insists that someone should’ve come before now.

Whatever.

Daily update on the status of the woods: blood-curdling

My dear, dear brother calls me a pussy. I argue that anyone else besides him would be- rightfully!- scared of this place. Too many noises, and all of them terrifying.

Speaking of, the leaves are rustling again. Techno is sleeping, and I’m writing this, so it isn’t either of us. 

It is at this point that I begin to believe the stories of fae.

Yes, it’s silly, but I can’t help but think that we’ll be taken. We’ll be- eaten, or something equally as gruesome. 

Usually, this is the point where Techno sees me panicking and calms me down, but he’s asleep and I don’t want to wake him up. 

Since he won’t see this, I’ll admit, as much as I call my brother every horrible thing I can think of, I do care for him. 

At times.

______

The next part looks like it was written hurriedly- some of the ink is smudged and the handwriting is so much worse than usual.

______

The leaves are rustling again. I could swear I just saw something move behind them. It’s almost like something is glowing, too- I can see a light from behind the bush.

I’m going to wake my brother up, just in case. Best case scenario, he can just go back to sleep. Worst case scenario? 

I can tell him I care about him before we both die.

Maybe I’m being overdramatic. I'll shake Techno awake, and then we’ll check it out. There’ll probably be nothing, and we can laugh it off. Hopefully, that’ll b

______

At that point, the ink smudges and trails off. 

“... Huh.” Tommy says, handing the book back to Tubbo. “That’s slightly terrifying.” 

Tubbo grins. “Yep.” 

“So,” Tommy starts slowly. “You thinking what I’m thinking?” 

“Probably not, we’re two entirely different people.” Tubbo mumbles. “But yeah, I think I do.”

“Let’s go find the people-eating fae that apparently live in the woods!”

Tubbo rolls his eyes at the exclamation. “Well, duh, but we’ve got to do our research first.”

“Ew, research.” Tommy scrunches up his nose. “But if you wanna do that first, guess I’ll help.”

“Great.” Tubbo shoots him a grin. “Let’s figure out if the people-eating fae are real and then find them!”

Tommy grumbles for a second, but relents. 

“Let’s get researching… I guess.”

______

About two hours, some snacks, and a few newspapers later, they think they’ve found the answer.

“Okay, so.” Tubbo says, shuffling the newspapers he’s holding. “What we know so far is: we have the diary of Wilbur Soot, the brother he’s talking about is Technoblade Soot, and their dad is Philza Minecraft. One day, the brothers go out into the woods, and never come out. Their dad follows about a week and a half later, and no one ever sees them again.”

Tommy nods, and Tubbo continues. “We know what happened the week they were in the woods, and we know when their dad went in, but during the half-a-week the diary doesn’t cover, and all the time afterwards? We don’t know.”

“It was probably the people-eating fae.” Tommy says solemnly.

“It was probably the people-eating fae.” Tubbo agrees.

Tommy groans, stretching. “That took way too long. Can we just go explore already? I’m tired of looking at paper.” 

Tubbo giggles. “Hmm, maybe. If you… give me one of the cupcakes you just made?” 

Tommy glares at him. “What the fuck. You can’t just ask that of a man.” He sighs at the look Tubbo gives him. “But fine. You can have one.”

Tubbo cheers.

They pack a bag for the trip into the woods, containing five granola bars, a few bandaids, and a singular cupcake in a bag. Tubbo also makes him pack a few water bottles, even though it’ll make the bag heavier than it needs to be.

Bag slung over Tommy’s shoulder, they make their way out of the bakery. 

They’ve only gotten five minutes away before Tubbo speaks. “Wait.”

“Yeah?” Tommy asks, turning around to face him. “What is it?”

“Shouldn’t we like, tell someone where we’re going? What if we get eaten by the fae and go missing? We should have someone to tell people to come save us.”

He does make a fair point. Tommy doesn’t want to get eaten by fae and have no one know what happened to him. “Well, we can’t tell Niki or Puffy. They won’t let us go. Maybe Eret?”

Tubbo shakes his head. “Nah, Eret’s a cool uncle, but he still tells Niki everything. Maybe Foolish? Though, to be fair, he would probably tell Niki or Puffy. Maybe not if we specifically told him not to, but then he’d want to come along with us, overprotective older brother and all that.” He pauses for a second. “Speaking of, we could tell Dream-”

Tommy groans, loudly. “Oh god, anyone but Dream.”

Tubbo raises his hands in the air, surrendering. “If you really don’t want to, we don’t have to, but you have to admit he’s the best choice.”

“Yeah, but he’s fuckin’ nerdy and shit! I don’t want to speak to him.” Tommy says, exasperated.

“You didn’t have that mentality when we were younger.” Tubbo grumbles.

“Oh my god, do not bring that up to me. If I have to remember when I looked up to Dream one more time I am going to simply perish.”

Tubbo snorts. “Fine, fine. But besides, you won’t even have to speak to him! I’ll just tell him, and you can sit back and grump.”

“I do not grump.” Tommy says, grumping. 

“Yeah, okay. Sure you don’t.” Tubbo says, rolling his eyes. “Let’s just go see Dream and get it over with.”

______

A few minutes later finds them outside Dream’s office, knocking on his door.

They hear a bit of shuffling inside, before he calls out, “Come in!”

Tubbo enters first, Tommy close behind him. 

Dream looks up from his paperwork, recognizing them. “Oh, Tommy, Tubbo, hey!” Dream says cheerily, standing up and making his way towards them. “Always good to see my little bros.”

Tommy cuts him with the most scorching glare he can muster. Dream laughs and ruffles his hair. “So, what’s up?” He asks.

Tubbo begins. “Okay, so we were doing things at the bakery, right? And then Tommy found this book, and one thing led to another, and now we have a mystery!”

Dream chuckles. “What type of mystery?”

“Why do you want to know?” Tommy butts in. “It’s like, a murder thing though. So if we die we want you to know that we were eaten by fae in the woods.” He continues.

Dream looks confused, but agrees. “Alright, yeah. Just don’t get yourselves into any actual trouble, alright?”

Tommy sticks his tongue out at him.

“Okay!” Tubbo says. “Thanks Dream!”

Dream grins at them. “Anytime! Be safe!” He calls out as they leave the room.

The door shuts behind them with a thunk.

“Well, that went well.” Tubbo says cheerily as they follow the path to the woods. 

“As well as any interaction with Dream can go, sure.” Tommy replies, sulking.

Tubbo rolls his eyes, a small smile on his face, and they keep going.

As the entrance to the woods gets nearer and nearer, Tommy begins to second-guess his decision. Was it too late to turn back…?

But Tubbo is already a few paces ahead of him, so Tommy takes a deep breath, and keeps going.

It gets darker as they continue, the leaves above them getting closer and closer together until they block out almost all the light. Tommy shivers. 

Without thinking, he reaches out to grip Tubbo’s hand tightly. He was fuckin' scared, okay?

Tubbo gave no response besides squeezing his hand a little, and for that Tommy was grateful. He really wasn’t in the mood to be made fun of, even if it would have been completely light-hearted.

They continue on.

Right as they reach the part of the forest where the path veers to the left, Tommy hears a rustling in the bushes.

He inhales sharply, gripping Tubbo’s hand as tight as he can. Just a little bit farther, he chants in his head. Almost there, almost there, almost there.

Almost where? Well. He wasn’t quite sure, but he’d figure it out. Probably.

As they reach a point where they can’t go any farther, bushes with thorns and probably poison ivy, Tommy, we are not going in there blocking the path, Tommy begins to wonder if they should just turn around.

And that’s when they hear it.

It starts as a quiet whisper of leaves rubbing against each other, before turning into a full-out murmur.

And then they see the bushes begin to move.

Tubbo tugs his hand away, but Tommy can only stand there, petrified with fear as something emerges.

Or, rather, someone.

“Who the fuck are you?”

Chapter Text

“Who the fuck are you?” Tommy repeats, caught off-guard by the sudden appearance.

The figure freezes for a second, and during that, Tommy gets a better look at them. Their skin is half white, half black- almost like if they’d been splashed with paint on one side. They wear a black cape over what looks like a bloused shirt and a skirt, but that isn’t what catches Tommy’s eye.

The pin of their cloak almost seems to glow, catching the light. It almost looks like an eye- a dark pupil surrounded by green and blue. But before he can get a better look at it, Tommy’s cut off.

The figure bolts .

“Hey-” Tommy scrambles after them, attempting to catch up before they can get too far. 

They make their way deeper and deeper into the forest- and as it slowly gets darker and darker, Tommy is gripped with a feeling he can’t quite place.

It almost feels like terror.

However, he can’t contemplate that for too long, tripping over a root and landing in the dirt with an oof . He lies on the ground, helpless, as he watches the person disappear into the distance. Man, they’re fast .

He can’t stay on the forest floor forever though, as much as he’d like to. After a few moments, he sighs, attempting to untangle himself from the branches that he’d somehow gotten himself stuck in.

It only takes him a few attempts before he realizes he can’t. Confused, he struggles harder, determined to wriggle out, to no avail. What the fuck . 

There’s no way he’s stuck here. He refuses.

Oh god, what if there are wolves? He’ll be eaten for sure. Tubbo would murder him if he was killed by wolves, just because he had been chasing after someone in the woods. 

Speaking of, where is Tubbo? He was following Tommy, Tommy’s sure of that.

Right?

Oh, he’s so fucked.

______

Tommy had been laying on the forest floor for a little under five minutes when he hears a rustling near him.

“Hello?” He calls, his voice definitely not shaking. Please don’t let it be wolves.

He crosses his fingers, just in case.

Apparently, it works, because it isn’t wolves that come from a tree next to him. However, it isn’t Tubbo either, which is who Tommy had expected to be there.

It’s the figure from the woods. 

“Oh! Uh, how do?” Tommy asks.

The figure doesn't answer, just takes a step further towards him. They’re wearing a cloak, the hood covering the upper half of their face, but they push it back a little, so Tommy can see their face. When he meets their green-and-red eyes, they immediately look away, but Tommy doesn’t take it personally. 

"Uh…" Tommy feels his mouth dry a bit, unsure what to say next. "I'm Tommy, by the way. Nice to… meet you?"

The person tilts their head, considering, before they speak.

“I’m- uh, you can call me Ender.” They- Ender, speaks softly, and Tommy almost doesn’t hear it. “Why did you tell me your name ?” They add, sounding slightly horrified.

Tommy squints at them. “It’s what you do, innit?” He questions.

“Well, yes, but…” Ender trails off.

“But?” 

Ender pauses, and in that time, a crash sounds from behind them.

Tommy jumps, but it’s Tubbo who storms in, wielding a stick. Tommy still shrinks back instinctively- Tubbo can be scary sometimes. 

"Get away from him." Tubbo snaps at Ender, holding the stick like a baseball bat. 

Ender jumps, purple particles forming in a flurry around them. They look ready to flee again.

“Wait!”

Tubbo turns to look at him, and Tommy realizes how loud he’d been. He winces, but continues. “Ender’s a… friend?” He questions, shooting a glance at Ender. They shrug, so Tommy takes that as a yes.

Tubbo gives Ender the side-eye, but relents. “Hm. Well, in that case, I’m Tu-”

Ender throws their hands out palms first in front of them, gesturing wildly. “Don’t- you can’t just do that!” They hiss. “Do you know how dangerous that is?!”

Tubbo and Tommy glance at each other. “No?” Tubbo answers slowly.

Ender throws their hands up. “Of course you don’t.”

“Didn’t you tell us your name? And why would telling anyone your name be dangerous, anyway?” Tubbo asks. “It’s not like it’s that important of information.”

Ender starts pacing in circles, looking stressed. “I didn’t tell you my real name. And it- well, it isn’t dangerous, normally. This is just… a special occasion, one could say.”

“Why?” Tommy fiddles with a root wrapped around his arm. That hadn't been there before. Huh. Had the tree moved ? 

Well. Nothing he can do about that, really. He shakes away the thoughts, and tunes back into what Ender's saying.

“Well, it’s kind of hard to explain, but-”

“Are you a fae?” Tubbo blurts out. Tommy sends him a look. “You can’t just ask someone if they’re a fae, Tubbo. It’s rude.” He mutters.

Ender blinks. “I… I am. How did you…?”

“Oh! Are you really?” Tommy tries to lean forward, interested. He’s stopped by the roots he’s still tangled in, but, hey, it was an attempt. “That’s what we were looking for!”

“What you were… looking for?” Ender trails off, looking lost.

“Yeah!” Tubbo replies. “We found something about there being fae in the woods- a lot of things, actually- and we decided we’d look for them.” He ducks his head, sheepish. “Maybe it wasn’t the greatest idea, but hey. It was something.”

“It was a fantastic idea.” Tommy grumbles. “We found one, didn’t we?”

The corners of Tubbo’s lips pull up in amusement. “We did.”

Ender tilts their head at them. “Hm. That’s, uh, something.” 

“It is!” Tommy practically bounces in place. “Oh I can’t wait to tell Dream about this, it’ll wipe his stupid smirk right of his face-”

“Oh, um, about that, actually.” Ender butts in, albeit quietly.

Tubbo and Tommy wait as Ender seems to search for words. “Don’t tell anyone about… this, please? There’s been someone, uh,” They take a shaky breath, hand going to their cloak’s clasp. “Hunting fae, recently. I don’t want me or my host to be found out.”

“Host?” Tommy asks, curious. “And yeah, ‘course we’ll keep it a secret if you want us to. I, personally, am the master of keeping secrets.”

“A host is like- a group.” Ender explains. “A family, a flock, a gathering- whatever you want to call it. And thank you.” They give Tommy a genuine smile, who grins back.

“No problem, big man. And huh.” Tommy tilts his head, intrigued. “Who else is in your host?”

Ender opens their mouth, but before they can say anything, Tommy feels a tug from the roots he’s ensnared in, and is pulled underground.